This invention relates to a vehicle having a dump body, and means for directing vehicle engine exhaust through the body and/or through other exhaust conduit means.
As is well known, vehicles which include tiltable dump bodies are in widespread use for transporting of earth, minerals and the like from one location to another. The material transported is loaded into the vehicle dump body, and the dump body is tilted about a given axis at the point of discharge in order to dump the material. The material transported is often wet, with the result that cold weather operations are impeded by freezing of the wet material onto the transporting body, making dumping difficult or impossible. A well known way to avoid this difficulty is by heating of the dump body by means of the exhaust from the internal combustion engine which powers the vehicle. The engine exhaust is commonly introduced into the dump body with the body in a non-dump position, and the body connection with the engine exhaust piping is broken when the body is tilted for dumping purposes. A valve included in the system at this point directs engine exhaust through alternative exhaust conduit means, for example, including a muffler therein.
A problem with such a system is that generally either the full exhaust flow passes through the dump body, or the full exhaust flow passes through the muffler. The actuation of such valve cuts off exhaust flow through the muffler with the dump body in its non-dumping position. Thus, upon raising and lowering of the dump body, the muffler is subjected to successive heating and cooling, which is detrimental to long muffler life.